Michael Murray denied harassment and threats charges as jury heard interview

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Michael Murray denied charges of harassment and making threats to kill. The proceedings were reported on 25 June 2021.

Murray, 50, was accused of advertising the woman he was convicted of raping, barrister Dominic McGinn SC and his former defence solicitor online as prostitutes in 2015. He was also charged with threatening to kill McGinn and his co-counsel in the 2013 rape trial.

He pleaded guilty to having an unauthorised mobile phone in prison.

The woman and her husband, who cannot be named for legal reasons, gave evidence on 25 June 2021. Speaking through an interpreter, she said she was terrified by calls and texts she began receiving in January 2015. Her husband said he received a call from a withheld number on 9 February 2015, during which the caller said he and his wife would be found and he would be in trouble.

A portion of a May 2015 garda interview with Murray was screened for the jury on 25 June 2021. Asked by Detective Garda Edel Keogan whether he intended the people named in the advertisements to be harassed, Murray replied: “Absolutely, yeah.” He also told the detectives that his own harassment was greater because he was on the front page of newspapers.

The trial was continuing before Judge Karen O’Connor and a jury.